This year, the IEEE Technical Committee on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, the organizer of the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), inaugurated the Helmholtz Prize, a test-of-time award presented for papers published at least 10 years ago that continue to influence the field of computer vision.

Given the huge strides the field has achieved, identifying papers with the greatest impact loomed as a daunting challenge, but for the authors of the papers, the results were gratifying—particularly for a couple of scientists from Microsoft Research.

Even in this awesome, hyperbolic age, the words “extraordinary achievement” don’t get tossed around all that much. And when they come from the IEEE, the world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology, they retain the distinction of superiority the King’s English surely intended.

Consider, then, the thrill with which Dilek Hakkani-Tür and Yongguang Zhang of Microsoft Research must have experienced in late November upon learning that they had been named to the list of 2014 IEEE Fellows.

Over the past several years, Microsoft Research Cambridge has established its bona fides as a serious player in the area of computational ecology, so it’s no great surprise that work from that lab caught the attention of Prince William during a recent trip to the London Zoo.

During a visit with conservation leaders to explore technology to help curtail wildlife poaching, the Duke of Cambridge, accompanied on his visit by his father, Prince Charles, encountered a tracking device attached to a toy albatross.

The device, part of the Mataki Project, conceived in part at Microsoft Research Cambridge, is an unprecedentedly light, cheap, and robust GPS device for tracking animal movements, including sudden ones that might be caused by poachers.

Prince William’s engagement with the device might have taken some aback. But Lucas Joppa, the Microsoft Research scientist who brought the device to the zoo gathering, has grown accustomed to the sort of eye-widening experiences his work engenders.

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Now, Socl is available for mobile-phone users. Microsoft Research’s FUSE Labs group is releasing Socl apps that can work on any major mobile platform. Windows Phone, Android, or iPhone—it doesn’t matter: Socl is now the go-to app for creative people on the go.